


When The Light Finds You

by QAtheAuthoress74



Category: Lego Ninjago, The LEGO Ninjago Movie (2017)
Genre: Adorkable!Aurora, Adorkable!Lloyd, Adorkable!SecretNinjaForce, Aurora is NOT my OC, Chartreuse Ship, F/M, First Date & First Kiss, Fluff and Angst, Gift Fic, Go Read Her Work., Lloyd deserves happiness and Aurora wants him to be happy dammit!, Movie-verse AU, Ninjago!Movieverse Aurora, Secret Ninja Force Are Best Wingmen and Wingwoman, She belongs to DoveShadow, meet cute gone wrong
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-03-18
Updated: 2021-03-18
Packaged: 2021-03-27 14:47:47
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,731
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/30124434
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/QAtheAuthoress74/pseuds/QAtheAuthoress74
Summary: Prequel To The Lego Ninjago Movie: Despite the loving support from Lloyd’s friends and family he still felt incomplete, the “judge-y” stares from the citizens of Ninjago and at school weren’t helping matters. It wasn’t until he tried giving the new girl at school a hand that he started to rethink that maybe, MAYBE, he was able to meet someone who could like him for who he is (perhaps even more) and not just the son of Lord Garmadon… Oh, and also make sure she doesn’t find out about his super secret Green Ninja identity. Can’t be too hard, right?
Relationships: Cole/Vania (Ninjago), Kai/Skylor (Ninjago), Lloyd Garmadon/Original Female Character(s), Lord Garmadon/Koko (Ninjago), Nya/Jay Walker, P.I.X.A.L./Zane (Ninjago)
Comments: 10
Kudos: 11





	When The Light Finds You

**Author's Note:**

  * For [DoveShadow](https://archiveofourown.org/users/DoveShadow/gifts).
  * Inspired by [The Green and the Yellow, Book 1: Destiny Awaits](https://archiveofourown.org/works/23330884) by [DoveShadow](https://archiveofourown.org/users/DoveShadow/pseuds/DoveShadow). 



**Disclaimer:** I do not own the characters that appear in this story. I don’t even own the ‘oc’ Aurora. She belongs to the incredibly talented, [DoveShadow](https://archiveofourown.org/users/DoveShadow/pseuds/DoveShadow), along with her retelling of Ninjago: Masters of Spinjitzu. If you like the idea of Lloyd getting a friend who happens to be a girl who shares a similar destiny to him and later have some really fluffy couple-y moments while kicking butt, [The Green and The Yellow](https://archiveofourown.org/series/1677793) is the fanfic series for you.

* * *

“She was bendable light: she shone around every corner of my day.” - Jerry Spinelli, “Stargirl”

💚🥷

So, let’s start at the beginning of the story.

I was just a boy with nowhere to call home.

There I was building houses on the sand… because I’m a Master Builder.

This is where the rimshot comes in.

Sorry, I can’t help but borrow lyrics from _The Fold_. Their music is too good to use. But in all seriousness let’s start at the **real** beginning.

My name is Lloyd. I’m 15 years old, I live in an apartment with my mom in Ninjago City (so I was lying about being homeless). I was raised in the city for basically my entire life up to this point. I’m average height, pretty decent muscular build—if I do say so myself—and very pale blond hair with green eyes. I’m a sophomore at Ninjago Public High School and currently getting off the bus with the door shutting very close to my back right as I touched the ground. Speaking of which as soon as my feet were both on the concrete all of the other kids outside on the school’s front lawn glared at me as though I burned down their homes. Which was something they totally believed in me doing.

Oh, and there’s one more thing I forgot to mention.

“Morning, Garma-dork!” Chad the head cheerleader sneered after shoving me. He and his two cheer squad members, Maggie and I think the other girl was either Buffy or Claire, sneered as they walked away from me and towards the other side of the front lawn. I ignored whatever they were doing as I walked towards the front steps.*

“Hey Lloyd, tell your dad **thanks** for wrecking my aunt’s surf shop yesterday,” another kid yelled from nearby.

A classmate of mine rolled her eyes at my direction. “Ugh, his dad ruins everything.”

I’m the son of Lord Garmadon.

For those of you who were living under a rock for the last hundred years or so my… _father_ is considered the most terrifying villain to ever plague the island country of Ninjago. He’s had his sights on conquering the capital, Ninjago City for the last fifteen years. So far, he’s failed every single attempt thanks to his brother, Wu, thwarting him at every turn. But plenty of buildings would get wrecked anyway despite my uncle’s best efforts. Because Garmadon lives in a Volcano Lair 24/7 everyone fixates their anger out on me by proxy. I’m pretty sure the reason no one harassed my uncle was because he actively fought against his brother. Until a year ago, that is when he announced his retirement from fighting crime. The reason why the wise master of martial arts was retired had to do with him realizing an important detail. He told me he was becoming super, super **old**.

So, naturally that meant he had to go looking for someone new to replace him. And by someone, I mean six. Six ninjas to be precise. And who might these amazing, cool and brave ninjas be?

“BRO!” A red blur swept in front of me right before I was compressed into a vice-like grip. Just another one of Kai Smith’s special bear hugs. “What’s up, bro!” came the slightly lower sounding yell from a guy in a red track suit that he made work. He had a scar over his right eye and a white bandage over his left eyebrow, both of which were mostly concealed by his wild, spiky brown hair. Despite the injuries on his face, they didn’t hinder him from expressing a wide grin.

“Do you ever get tired of doing that every day?” I asked him after he pulled himself off from me a minute later.

“No~ Why, do you not like them anymore?” I’m not sure if it was intentional or not but Kai was doing that thing with his face where he looked like a kicked puppy. I was quick to assure him I wasn’t annoyed by the hugs and was silently touched that he promised not to quit them in the foreseeable future.

“Hello, fellow teenagers,” a boy with a perfectly straight looking white buzz cut and shining blue eyes greeted. He wore a white sweater that was clearly meant for a colder season, but he didn’t seem to mind. He was gliding right next to Kai and me, displaying a smile that was bigger and wider than the one Kai had earlier.

“Hey/’Sup, Zane/Dude,” Kai and I ended up greeting him at the same time, much to our amusement.

“I was having a rocking evening last night, getting very close to the thirteenth level of this mondo cool game when my mom said,” Zane then started to utter that screeching dial up sounds old computers made and gesturing wildly as he ‘talked’. As the kids around us either winced or exchanged weirded out looks me and Kai took it all in stride. Zane immediately stopped mid-beep and said, “Then I told her that yes, I do indeed know that I was going over my 60 minutes of video gaming per day rule she and dad set up for me, but I was very close to winning that level.”

“Was it _Fist To Fist II_?” Kai asked him. I fought back the urge to roll my eyes. That game series was Kai’s favorite and he always bragged about his high scores. I didn’t have the heart to tell him that I bet his highest score on my personal gaming device. 

Zane stiffly shook his head, his wide grin still prominent. “The new game Milton Dyer developed called, _Prime Empire._ ”

“H-hi, g-guys.” The three of us turned to look towards our left, smiling as we recognized the voice. A boy in a blue jacket, orange scarf with dark auburn curly hair hurriedly walked over to us while bearing a nervous smile. “Did you say you were playing Prime Empire, Zane?”

The white-haired ‘teen’s’ smile grew even wider than normal before answering, “Yes, Jay. I was about to complete it when my mom told me I needed to go to rechar—sleep,” he corrected himself, a very brief look of panic stricken his features before it vanished as quickly as it appeared. “I meant sleep, because that’s what all normal teenagers do.”

Kai, Jay and I exchanged looks but chose to not say anything.

“Anyway, I heard that game came out last week and wanted to know if it was good before buying it,” the freckled boy said towards Zane, smoothly changing the course of the conversation.

Zane perked up and went straight to telling our other video game loving friend all about Prime Empire. While they talked, I decided to cut the breeze with Kai. He went on about some random stuff he did over his weekend, mostly related to his blacksmith apprenticeship he was doing with his dad. When the topic moved over to Kai’s twin, I swear Jay couldn’t move his head any quicker.

“She’s trying to get her Learner’s Permit,” he asked with slight awe in his voice. “She’s so cool…. L-like a good video game or a-a sandwich.”

Kai playfully narrowed his eyes at our friend. “Did you just compare my sis to a sandwich?”

“Sandwiches are part of a healthy and well-balanced diet,” Zane chipped in. I couldn’t tell if he was trying to defend Jay putting his foot into his mouth or just giving us all trivia, he thought would be helpful.

“What about sandwiches?” a voice at a lower octave than mine asked.

The tallest and most muscular member of our little group, Cole Brookstone, was leaning against the wall where our lockers were, banging his head while listening to music on his silver headphones. He partially taken off one of the headphones, giving us a blank but somehow also interested look.

“Nothing!” Jay exclaimed in embarrassment.

Zane took the brief pause to chime in again. This time he used a quote from a television show I introduced him to recently and spoke it towards Cole. “You know what, in a few years, when you're older, buddy...we'll sit down, and have a heart-to-heart talk about sandwiches.”

Cole scrutinized our mutual friend for a second before glancing over at me. “ _Dragon Prince_?”

I nodded. “The Dragon Prince.”

Vv-rooom~!

Kids in the hallway had to press themselves against the wall when a gray motorcycle rolled in. The person riding it had the bike turned to its side, ala _Akira_ -style, before flipping the kickstand down to hold the vehicle in place.

“Guess who just got her Learner’s Permit over the weekend,” a girl in a black and cyan biker gear with black hair tied up in a short ponytail said as she climbed off her motorcycle. In her hands was a small white rectangular card with her name, photo I.D and other basic information.

“Knew you could do it, little sis,” Kai praised.

She gave him a flat look. “You’re older than me by, like, three minutes.”

“W-wow, Nya,” Jay stuttered as he looked at her in awe. “You must’ve been like… uh, really on top to get that permit,” he tried to save some face by attempting to lean against the lockers like Cole was doing but missed the wall by a foot and ended up tripping instead. Right after he fell, we all rushed over to see if he wasn’t injured.

“Jay, man!” “You alright, dude?” “Did you suffer from any internal damages?” “Jay, are you okay?” Kai, Cole, Zane and I said at once.

“Give him some air guys,” Nya gently scolded before helping the currently dizzy Jay up.

“Klutz,” someone near us muttered before laughing and other kids soon joined in. Jay had gotten out of his wobbly only to see people mocking him. A crowd formed, with one kid even trying to jump over the throng of students just to see what was going on. Jerks. Can’t any of them see how rude they were being? Jay whimpered, compelled to hide himself in his own scarf. Cole came over to help Nya and Jay, not before giving the onlookers a stony glare. That caused most of the other teens to back off and leave.

Just another typical day at Ninjago Public High School.

“You okay, Jay?” Nya asked, sympathy shown on her face.

Jay mumbled something incoherent under his breath before giving her a short nod. If it weren’t from the incident a moment ago, I would’ve chalked up his behavior as acting tongue-tied.

( ~~I hope I would never act like that towards a girl~~ — ~~never mind! Forget I said that.~~ )

Almost on cue, the first bell rang. We all let out mutual groans.

“Time for class, I guess,” Jay muttered sadly.

“We’ll all see each other again at lunch,” Kai said, hoping it would raise our spirits. “And we all share fifth period after that so that’s good.”

“Yeah.” His twin nodded in agreement. “Well, Zane, time for us to head over for English.”

“It was the best of times, it was the worst of times,” the white-haired teen began to recite as he and Nya walked one way down the hall. Cole and Jay went the other way to the chemistry class they shared. Kai followed me towards the hall to where my first period was even though his Spanish class was at the other end of the school. None of my friends ever said it but it was an unspoken agreement they had where they would try to make sure one of them was with me, so I had less of a chance of getting bullied. It wasn’t a perfect system, but it was the thought that counts.

“See you in lunch and then Ninjago History after that,” Kai said, making sound like a promise.

“Yeah,” I said before giving him a short wave before he walked away.

I sighed before heading to my first class of the day… and the only one I didn’t share with any of my friends. Yay.

💚🥷

“Did you guys hear that we got a transfer student coming today?” Jay asked while I was in the middle of trying one of Zane’s tuna rolls, he brought from his home. I didn’t choke on the sushi, but Kai ended spitting half of his water all over my green hoodie.

“Shoot,” he winced before running over to the counter where all the napkins are kept and handed me twelve of them. “Sorry, man.”

“At least it wasn’t soba like last time,” I said weakly, trying to suppress the traumatic incident that involved sneezing and hot noodles.

“What was that about a new kid, Jay?” Nya asked, bringing the conversation back to the boy in blue.

Jay flushed at the girl focusing on him before he took out his phone and popped up the school’s social media page on _Chirp_. On the page was a small notice about a kid coming today from Ninjago Preparatory School For The Gifted.

“Really? A kid from the rich snob school?” Nya said dismissively.

Kai frowned. “They’re probably gonna complain about how our school has a lower budget and less good teachers as theirs… Which probably is true anyway, but it’ll still suck hearing somebody we don’t know complain about it.”

As the rest of the gang began to list out their own grievances against the new student, I realized two things. One, they were basing their statements on rumors and two—

“Hey, uh, guys,” I called out. When I got their attention I coughed before asking, “Don’t you think it’s a little unfair to be all judge-y about someone you don’t really know yet?”

Their casually rapt staring soon shifted to crestfallen looks. The guilty voice that’s always in the back of my mind said I shouldn’t have told them that.

What virtually everyone in Ninjago, save for Uncle Wu, didn’t know was that my friends and I were the Secret Ninja Force. We had been growing in popularity despite having only formed last summer. Because of me being the son of Garmadon, my uncle had allowed me to initially keep my identity a secret from my teammates since the two of us didn’t know how the others would react. For the first few months, things were great. They didn’t seem to mind that I constantly wore my mask around them once they got used to it. It wasn’t until the beginning of our sophomore year that I recognized them all as my classmates. When I spoke to Master Wu about it, he said that I could choose when the right time to tell them was. Well, like most good things in my life it seemed like the short period of bliss ended thanks to the others catching me taking off my mask after one of Garmadon’s squid mechs blasted me with ink, stinging me in the eyes. I can still remember the incredulous looks of astonishment each of my teammates shared as they looked at me. I didn’t give them the chance to express any disgust before I ran away, heading for home. When my mom asked me, what was wrong I pretended that I couldn’t hear her. I also acted like I wasn’t crying into my pillow, believing I had lost the only friends that would ever like me.

In less than 12 hours they came over to my home (much to my amazement) and apologized for taking so long to get over their shock. I was dogpiled by Nya, Kai and Zane for about five minutes until I needed to breathe. Jay brought an old game console he fixed up as a gift for me so we could all play _Fist To Face._ Zane brought cookies he made and Cole had his boombox with a bunch of his mixtapes to play while we had our impromptu party. When I asked them why they forgive me for lying to them they said they understood why. What they were really mad was at how jerkish they felt for never trying to reach out to me at school before they knew the truth (they made sure to tell me that last part when my mom wasn’t within hearing range since she doesn’t know we’re the Secret Ninja Force).

The six had then become my best friends… but that didn’t mean old habits magically went away.

“Right,” Kai stretched out the word with a wince.

“Sorry, man.” Cole said, taking his headphones off and not looking for his bombox like he normally does. I knew he was taking this conversation seriously if he wasn’t listening to music.

“That was extremely rude and judgmental of us to make such shrewd assumptions,” Zane added as his usually present grin was replaced with a frown of his own.

“Totally not so ninja,” Jay muttered, looking utterly gutted.

Nya was the first to recover and gave me a supportive smile. She then said, “If we do end up coming across the new kid, we’ll make sure to give them the benefit of the doubt and see with our own eyes what they’re really like.”

I smiled, feeling very proud as the team’s leader.

“Speaking of which, does the school Chirp say what the kid looks like?” Kai asked. It didn’t take long for the rest of us to ask Jay. He scrolled on his phone before shaking his head. “It’s weird, aside of mentioning that the kid used to go to Ninjago Prep and they’re the same age as Lloyd, that’s it.”

“Not even a name?” Nya asked while arching an eyebrow.

Jay shrugged, “I guess the principal is just being secretive for the new kid’s privacy?”

“That’s still kinda weird,” Kai commented as Zane and Cole nodded concurrently.

Huh, so I shared an age with the kid. I suppose that was two things we had in common besides being judged too quickly. Eventually we all moved to more mundane topics before I checked my watch and realized lunch time was almost up. “We should probably get ready to go before the rush hits us on the way out,” I suggested as I put the trash and the rest of my not-stellar cafeteria lunch onto my tray. My friends shared the same sentiment before they also put their own trash and respected lunch bags and trays away. We were right by the doors when the bell did ring and we made it out before the rest of the student body.

I was the first to make it to our row of lockers and unlocked the combination in record time. As I opened my locker to pick out which books, I would need for next period I paused. My heightened hearing, I got from years of training to be a ninja, picked up a sound of distress. (Cole was the second-best member of the group to pick up sounds but so far, his hearing only picked up musical notes before any of us did) I turned around to see where the sound came from and my eyes widened.

Across the end of the newly crowded hall was a girl with long black hair that reached her middle, tied into a ponytail. She wore an expensive-looking purple jacket over a blue pencil skirt, and sneakers that had zero scuff marks, meaning that they were brand new. It looked like she was trying to go for a causal outfit but still stood out with all the fancy brands nobody at our school could afford to wear. Yep, she had to be the new kid from the prep school, but that wasn’t what got my attention. What did was seeing her frantically flailing across her side of the hall looking like she was trying to find something. That was when I felt something hit my food. I looked down and found a large violet binder with shiny yellow dragon stickers plastered all over.

“Excuse me?” My head shot up when I heard a voice of a girl. It was light and silvery but wobbled at the end as though she was worried about something. I normally didn’t try to eavesdrop on other people, but her rising voice made it hard not to listen. I am glad I could hear her because she then said, “I’m looking for a purple binder with these yellow dragon stickers on it? Have you seen it?” she asked after walking up to other kids on her side of the hall. When none of them answered yes, she went to go look for another person to ask. “Oh, I really need it. It’s got all my notes and my schedule and a copy of the school map, not to mention all my new homework so far. You’d think they’d give some slack for a transfer student—”

Without even thinking I had picked up the binder that I now knew belonged to her and was prepared to walk over to where she was before I wavered.

The reason for my hesitation was because I was unsure if I should help her or not. Yes, my first instinct was to reach out to give her a hand, but I knew better than to do that. Helping people out when I’m not in my Green Ninja gi never ends well.

_But…_

I sighed. She needed my help. My mom and Uncle Wu taught me to always help those in need no matter the consequences. And there was a _slight_ , minuscule chance that the new kid really hasn’t heard about me and won’t hate me outright. A selfish part of me thought if I did something nice, she might not see me as a bad guy.

I summoned my courage and slowly walked to the other side of the hallway where the girl was.

“Oh, where is it?” To me it sounded like she was well passed panic mode despite not having seen her face yet.

After taking a deep breath, I cleared my throat loud enough for her to notice me. Much to my relief she had heard me right away and turned around.

Once I saw her, her image struck me like a bolt of lightning from the Lightning Jet Jay was starting to build.

I couldn’t take my eyes off her, which was something that almost never happened to me before. I was speechless and thought for a second that sparks were flying when I looked into her eyes. Though, that was probably thanks to the fluorescent lightbulb that needed to be replaced up above. But that didn’t matter to me all of a sudden.

Standing in front of me was one of the prettiest girls I’ve ever seen.

Her black hair looked straight and silky once I was close enough to see it. Two large bangs perfectly canvased around her soft looking cheeks. Her lips were a cherry blossom pink that were initially downwards until she laid eyes on me and they formed a small ‘o’. Her eyes… they weren’t like anything I had seen before. They were the shade of royal yellow, something which I didn’t think was possible for a person to have. Then again, I swear that I was literally the only person in the city with green eyes so who was I to judge? While I noticed that she had a thin waistline before I didn’t realize until now how well her jacket and yellow shirt clung to her body. I tried not to let my blush look too obvious after I unintentionally checked her out. FSM, I felt like a creep.

I then realized I had been probably staring at her for too long. I opened my mouth to tell her I came to bring back her binder when—

“O.M.G.O.S.H! Garma-dork is trying to steal the new kid’s binder!” Chad came from out of nowhere, yelling loudly right by me and **her**. Everyone immediately stopped what they were doing to see what was going on. Confused stares were quickly replaced with disgruntled and angry glares.

“Ugh, first he has to go to our school and now he’s stealing!” one student accused. A girl next to him scowled. “And taking something from the new kid? That’s like so low, even for Garmadon.”

I yelped when I felt something hard hit against my shoulder, almost causing me to fall but my quick ninja-like reflexes saved me. Though I was unable to catch the binder from falling to the ground.

“Oh, and now he’s trying to break her stuff too,” Maggie yelled as I saw her hold her pom-poms in a tight grip.

More and more kids gathered around me saying hurtful things about how I was a freak, a loser and a total jerk for trying to harass some poor transfer student. I could barely hear my friends trying to break through before I looked up and saw the new girl standing a few feet away from me.

Her surprised look from earlier was gone but she was still gaping. She had a dumbfounded expression with the faintest hint of her eyebrows furrowing, like she was trying to put something together in her mind. My best guess was that she must’ve been shocked that I seemed to have tried to keep my identity a secret from her despite not having had the chance to introduce myself yet. But I knew a betrayed look when I saw it. So, I did the only thing I knew how in this type of scenario.

I cumbersomely shuffled away from her blinding aura, straightened myself up, grabbed the books I left in my locker before bolting down the hall. I didn’t even stop after my friends called out to me.

Why does it seem like I can’t I do anything right?

**End of Chapter I**

* * *

**Q-A:** Wow. This is my first time writing a giftfic. I hope I did you justice, [ShadowDove](https://archiveofourown.org/users/DoveShadow/pseuds/DoveShadow). ^-^ Again, if anyone is interested in reading her stories please do. They’re both funny, sweet, sad and awesome all rolled into one. Seriously, go read them to show your support. Or re-read them if you are already a fan.

Next chapter will be Aurora’s POV of this chapter along with a few more added scenes that I think you will all like. We’ll also see that she and Lloyd have more in common than they think. ;)

References:

*Got my Buffy _The Vampire Slayer_ and _Heroes_ references in one go. I’m sure the writers of every Lego movie would be so proud of me. XD

Now to talk about Aurora’s design. I went with her wearing an outfit similar to what she had on when she first met Lloyd in [The Green and the Yellow, Book 1](https://archiveofourown.org/works/23330884). I of course modified a few things and emphasized that her clothes looked expensive compared to the other kids. There is a reason for that, which I will explain in a later chapter. And her hair design is based on the LEGO Long Ponytail with Side Bangs (62696 /88426) hairpiece. I wanted to loosely follow the OC art DoveShadow has of Aurora on her Ao3 ID photo. As for the eyes, so far, I haven’t found any of Dove’s stories that mentioned what Aurora’s eye color is. I chose my take on Aurora to have yellow-looking eyes since in Dove’s AU Aurora is the Yellow Ninja. Because we all know Lloyd’s eye color is green in the movie and seasons 8-to now of Ninjago, my HC is that Aurora’s matches or will match her signature color like his.

And in case it wasn’t obvious I deliberately made Lloyd and Aurora’s first scene together feel like how Garmadon and Koko met in the movie. :)

~Please give comments, kudos, maybe make a bookmark and subscribe. I’ll answer any questions to the best of my abilities. :D And be sure to…

Keep on Writin’ and Rockin’


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